Agenda item

Context:

To scrutinise the draft Housing Renewals Policy.

Key Issues:

·         There is a need to review and refresh the Council’s Housing Renewal Policy due to a variety of both financial and legislative changes.  In addition, a number of new initiatives have been introduced by Welsh Government to support and encourage the improvement of existing private sector housing, such as loan funding. The Policy effectively formalises existing practice.

·         In addition to service specific changes, there is a need to ensure the Policy is fully aligned with the Council’s Safeguarding Policy and therefore, is fit for purpose.

·         The Council decided over a decade ago that it could not continue to offer discretionary repairs and improvement grants. The main funding, has been £600,000 of capital to fund disabled facilities (DFG’s) and Safety at Home (SaH) grants.  Over time, the purchasing power of that sum declined and demand, though variable, increased both in quantity and complexity.  As adults live longer and wish to stay in their own homes for as long as possible and children with complex disabilities needed specialised facilities in their homes, the demand on the budget has increased. In 2016/17 the Council recognised this growth and raised the budget to £900,000.  This has helped to improve the average turnaround for DFG’s to 193 days.

·         A further recent development is that the Welsh Government has provided a three year funding stream under its ENABLE programme which has added approximately £100,000 to the resources available for disabled adaptations. The fund supports a flexible and responsive approach to delivering adaptations, particularly through partnership arrangements.

·         As well as the requirement to provide mandatory Disabled Facilities Grants and the discretionary, but highly valued,  Safety at Home Grants, the Council has also been able to process Welsh Government funds intended to help home owners carry out home improvements and to encourage owners of empty properties to bring them back into use.  The Committee considered a loans report on 19^th June 2018. The interest free loans are intended to support these initiatives and essentially mean the Council can offer financial support for private sector housing in absence of being able to provide discretionary renovation grants.  The expectation from Welsh Government is that these loans are promoted by the Council.  Take up to date has been limited, therefore, seeking to increase awareness is a key priority.

·         In addition to the financial support, the Housing Renewals Policy (HRP) also covers the housing standards enforcement work of the Council’s Environmental Health Service.  The service also inputs directly into the Home Improvement Loans (HILs) and Houses into Homes (H2H) schemes by ensuring that all Category 1 hazards to health are rectified as part of the scheme of work. 

Options Appraisal

The following options are available:

·         Option 1 – Continue with the existing housing renewal policy and make no changes.  The current policy is, however out of date and not fit for purpose.

·         Option 2 – Adopt the proposed policy in whole.

·         Option 3 – Adopt the proposed policy in part.

Member Scrutiny:

The Select Committee supported the report of the Review of Housing Renewals Policy.